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i'm thriving by helping others everyday. people who know, know bdo. narrator: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. announcer: and now, "bbc news". ♪ christian: hello. i'm christian fraser, and this is "the context" >> my memory is fine. take a look at what i've done since i've been president. nobody thought i could pass the things i got passed. >> you are left to wonder why this report spends time making gratuitous criticisms of the president. >> although the report absolves him legally, the political damage is perhaps harder to bear.

christian: this hour the german chancellor is in washington at a moment when joe biden is facing perhaps the biggest crisis in his presidency. behind in the polls, facing criticism for his position on gaza, and now his mental fitness in question. we will bring you any public comments live. in gaza, there are up to 1.5 million civilians around rafah who fear the war is coming to them. the met police say they think the man they have been looking for in connection to the chemical attack has gone into the river thames. we will bring you the latest on that. good evening. the german chancellor olaf scholz is in washington tonight warning of the dangers of a russian victory in ukraine if allies don't step up military support. joe biden does not need persuading, but there was no progress on a foreign aid bill.

house speaker says he won't even put it on the floor. wrapped up in the package is aid for israel. last night the president changed his position on the scale of the offense them in gaza and has maker he does not support the impending assault on rafah, now home to 1.5 million palestinians. pres. biden: i am of the view, as you know, that the conduct of the response in gaza -- in the gaza strip has been over the top. christian: 8 months out from the election, joe biden would dearly love a cease-fire in the middle east. last night he signed a memorandum stipulating that those who receive american aid must comply with international humanitarian law. but the middle east is the least ofis problems right now. the white house is on damage control following the release of special counsel robert hur's report into the handling of

classified documents. it portrayed the president as feeble and forgetful. in the last hour the administration has mounted an any rebuttal of the counsel's "gratuitous comments." >> the report lays out example after example of how the president did not willfully take classified documents. the report lays out how the president did not share classified documents with anyone. the report lays out how the president did not knowingly share classified information with anyone. on page 2, which i know you already, the report argues that -- which i know you already, the report argues that the president retained materials, but buried on page 215, "there is a shortage of evidence on these points." 200 pages later. put simply, this case is closed because the facts and evidence don't support the theories here. christian: our correspondent tom

bateman is following all the events at the white house for us this evening. that was a pretty fierce response from the administration tonight. i suppose it has to be, given the obvious damage it has caused. what is your it since 24 hours on of how that story is unfolding? tom: it's really bad news for president biden, because although there was the legal exoneration overall, it was interesting, ian sams, special assistant to the president, going through even that and saying they believe there were things factually wrong, the wrong emphasis put on things in the report, contradictions between what the report set out in the first few pages and then what it said it said much, much further down. they are basically in a position that they had always wanted to avoid, this issue of president biden's age and his acuity, his ability to perform the functions of his office. it is once again back in the spotlight. as i say, the political

exoneration, but now -- legal exoneration, rather, but a political hand grenade tossed right in. the beginning of this election year that we've know is going to be tumultuous, where we expect those attacks will continue. certain the republicans have wasted no time in pouncing on all of this. although you now have senior democrats right up to the vice president attacking both the factual basis of what was said in this report and the integrity of robert hur, the special counsel, it is a pretty tall order for them to push all of this back because we know the voters do have concerns about his age. the polling suggests that. rtain republicans are going to exploit it even further. that said, it may be very much already to the way people are intending -- be baked into the way that people are intending to vote in a polite environment. christian: we are waiting for pictures of olaf scholz at the

white house. there will always be focused on a visit like that, as well there should be, because they stand so closely on the matters at hand, ukraine and the middle east. but i guess for president biden, he will be aware that t focus is not so much on the crises at hand but the way he reacts and his responses to the questions he is asked. tom: that's true, and some of the attacks on him today have focused on this issue of national security. we have had three times in a week where president biden has misspoken or slipped up on the names or recollections of who foreign leaders are. of course all of that is now in the background. but on the issue of substance, you are absolutely right to say we have this significant crisis over security raging in two parts of the world. and these have all become interlinked. chancellor scholz's visit to

washington encapsulates this, because what the white house, the administration is desperate to do is to get the funding secured, military funding secured for ukraine. but at the same time there faced with the republican repeated attempts to dismantle this. they are failing so far to get it through congress and they basically saying that if the weapon supply dries up to ukraine from the u.s., you have a major crisis on your hands that opens the door to vladimir putin. olaf scholz is saying exactly that. that is what he has come to washington to say writing in a "wall street journal" editorial yesterday that this threatens the entirel liberal global order if the funding is not put back in the system. christian: we will talk later in the program about european countries on a war footing now. with respect to the middle east, which is your specialty, did you detect a change in position from the president?

this, that it was the responsei n ga--response in gaza had been over the top, does that suggest that the american patience is wearing a bit thin now? tom: it absolutely does, and the answer is yes, the messaging is shifting. it always evolved, but in the last week we have seen the clear irritation and frustration that president biden has with mr. netanyahu now starting to feed in more and more to the public messaging. you have antony blinken speaking in a tel aviv on this trip to the middle east, talking about the fact that he said hamas's dehumanization of israelis did not give the israeli government the license to dehumanize palestinians. extremely strong language, and that used in tel aviv itself. and we have president biden saying last night that he was asked a question about the middle easand he said it's a bit over-the-top in talking

about the israeli response. so that is significant. the interesting thing here is about there has always been some criticism from progressive or left-wing democrats that the administration hasn't used its leverage in terms of its weapon supply to israel to get them to rein in the military operation, with this catastrophic number of civilians being killed in gaza. and we saw some movement on that today, which i think is really interesting. this isn't just rhetoric, but there is this executive action which will mean that countries that receive weapons from the americans ll have to sign a waiver, and those currently in active conflict will have to do so within 45 days to say they will abide by international humanitarian law. that will be assessed, and there is a congressional process to assess this now. i think that interesting. that is a new development. christian: we are still waiting

for those pictures from the white house. he will be watching and come back a little later. thank you for the moment. we are certainly heading into a new and dangerous cycle of the war in gaza. the israeli infantry is preparing an assault on rafah, for they suspect the hamas leadership has been hiding. it is the main crossing from egypt into the gaza strip through which most of the aid comes in. for the past three months it has been the place israel has advised palestinians to flee. right now there is around 1.5 million people living in rafah in overcrowded shelters, sprawling makeshift tents, food extremely scarce, clean water scarcer. there is barely any sanitation, no medical supply. the secretary-general general of the norwegian refugee council. >> there is no water. i mean, bottled water there would be with exorbitant prices. still, still, the u.s., the u.k., and germany and all of the allies of israel has not been

able even to fix the access system of humanitarian aid into gaza. so we are still having 200 trucks per day, a third of what is needed. we are desperate. we are angry. we are sharing the pain of our colleagues here. and i know these people. they are scared to death. in this operation must stop. we have no more words. look for yourself, leaders of the world. this madness must stop. christian: let's speak to the senior director of the center on military and political power at the foundation for defense of democracies. thank you for your patience this evening. i know you have been standing by for us. there no question that he holds the u.k. come u.s., and germany responsible for this. do you think that will be a topic of conversation this evening at the white house, how they bring this to a close? >> i have no doubt that the two

leaders will discuss that among many other topics. but i just for my part think it is important to remind viewers that none of this uld be happening if hamas had not committed the single worst single-day slaughter of jews since the holocaust. there was a cease-fire on october 6 and hamas chose to break it. by the way, israel's goals here are to destroy hamas and release the hostages. if you give hamas a safe haven in rafahthen you have failed to destroy hamas and you are not going to get the hostages back. that in no way is dismissive of the extraordinary human suffering of innocent palestinians. but let's put blame where it belongs. and by the way, as a former u.s. military officer, it is not very often that the u.s. military in terms of ground operations were to tell our adversaries what we are going to do next. there is two combatants, one is the idf, israel defense force,

and the other is hamas. one wants civilians out of conflict areas and the other does not, and that is because hamas wants to use civilians as human shields and that is one of the reasons why the horribly high death toll in gaza is so high. christian: all of which is true. the question for the world leaders who are resolutely standing behind israel's right to respond is where it ends and how it ends. and the problem, it seems, for joe biden and olaf scholz at least, is that the prime minister, prime minister netanyahu, says it doesn't end until hamas is totally eradicated. there are a lot of people thi that is just an impossible goal. brad: yeah, you know, from the begin -- by the way, it has been israel's plan from the beginning to not only take out as much of hamas in the north but to move into the south. i know for a fact this is been the plan for the beginning. yes, they told palestinians to move south, and that is what they did, and a lot of them are

in the areas where they have this final focus. a key point is that the weapons that hamas used on october 7, most all of those came across from egypt. in addition to needing to destroy hamas, they also need to get after those tunnels that hamas leaders are using to escape and also to bring in additional weapons and so they can prepare for the next october 7. the reality is that israel feels itas to do this. and so the question is how can we help the civilians that are caught in the crossfire while also helping israel achieve its objectives that it is determined to achieve. that is where the real serious pocy discussion is. christian: the great question is whether some of the commanders are in gaza and whether on the egyptian rafah side, but there are many in rafah who have nowhere to go. on that issue, if it goes -- if we start to see some of the scenes we saw around khan yunis,

that executive order that tom was just talking about, you will understand from an american perspective the limitations that are put on the military aid. is that leverage that the americans have in jerusalem to rein it in somewhat? brad: yeah, you know, i try to call balls and strikes, and i would give the biden administration high marks for providing israel the weapons it is needed since october 7 to dend itself. but over time there has been increasing public pressure coming from the president and his administration on israelis, and i think this is part of it. i work to these issues in the u.s. senate for up to nine years, and there is all these measures already in place to do these things. there is a lot of political theater here, if i'm being blind. big surprise, right, because president biden is in election season. this is political silly season in washington. and so often in those seasons you do things that act like you are doing subbing new but you are really doing it for political effect. why is that? it is because the president is

confronting a lot of progression pressure from the progressive left to be seen to be putting more pressure on israel. but the bottom line is if israel stops short, then hamas will live to fight another day and we will see more october 7 -- christian: you think that sign yesterday is damage control for the likes of the arab americans in michigan who the administration went to see yesterday who obviously have great concerns about this? this is a token gesture to them? brad: i am suggesting there is theater going on. i haven't seen the exact document. as somebody who worked security assistance for many years, i'm telling you what they already do. there are mechanisms to do that. christian: just one last thought on the basis of what we've been talking bout with tom and the fallout from the report yesterday. there may be some americans closest allies looking nervously here and wondering whether the president is up to the job and would be up to the job for another term, all the way up to the age of 86.

what would you say to those countries who are looking on a nervously? brad: i would say we are our democracy and the people are going to decide the fitness of the two candidates is a question in the political debate. former president trump is trying to use that against president biden. some of the news in the last 24 hours is not helpful to president biden. but in the end come in our democracy, the voters will decide and i wouldn't say to nervous your shy would -- i would say to nervous europeans and others looking on democracy is not always clean and pretty, but the institutions are pretty strong and we have had a bit of a stress test of the last few years, and i am crushed the optimistic that our institutions will continue to hold -- cautiously optimistic that our institutions will continue to hold. christian: just on the issue of ukraine aid before i let you go, that will be uppermost in olaf scholz's mind. the senate are staying behind for the weekend to get a standalone aid package through.

can you see a scenario in the next week or so that it passes congress? brad: i see a scenario where you could see a positive result from my perspective, positive result in the u.s. senate. what we have is ukraine, israel, and taiwan/indo pacific being netted together with the border issue essentially dropping out. i can see that passing in the senate because the test vote was a 67 vote. i think that is the baseline, so they will be able to build and pass that in the senate. what happens in the house, well, the house is quite a circus these days, and a lot of it will depend on what former president trump is saying to portions of the republican caucus in the house and whether the more informed committee leaders, republican committee leaders can inform the rank-and-file about what our american interest is. in my view the american interest is not to abandon ukraine as it is confronting naked aggression from vladimir putin. christian: we will talk more

about ukraine in the program. thank you for coming on the program. still looking for those pictures from the white house. incidentally, when we do get to mr. biden and mr. scholz together, we will bring you those pictures live. around the world and across the for u.k. viewers, let's have a quick look at headlines making news here. rishi sunak paid more than half a million pounds in tax last year on total earnings of more than 2.2 9 million. the prime minister paid u.k. tax on his salaras an mp, his ministerial salary, interest from savings with the west bank, and investment gains on the u.s.-based fund. several premier league managers have expressed concerns about a proposal to truy sin blan players with blue cards. it is thought officials will spend more time discussing the proposals before a meeting of football's lawmakers next month. a u.k. court has found that the

green party acted improperly in 2022 when it dismissed its spokesman for policing because it didn't identify any misconduct. he claims he was removed because of his beliefs about gender, including the view that biology is real and immutable. for the judgment upheld -- but the judgment upheld local parties' rights to dismiss spokespeople whose views are different. london metropolitan police believe the men they were hiding for a chemical attack in clapham 10 days ago is dead. police say their working hypothesis was thaabdul shokoor ezedi had gone into the river thames, although nobody has been found. ezedi, 35, who had significant injuries to the right side of his face, was last seen on chelsea bridge on the third and first of january just hours after the attack and clapping. he is wanted for attempted murder after a woman and her two children were injured by a

corrosive liquid. it is thought that the woman will lose sight in one eye here is daniel sandford. daniel: chelsea bridge half past 11:00 wednesday night. this is the last cctv image police have been able to find of abdul shokoor ezedi. they scoured other cameras and footage from buses but found nothing more. they believe he went io the water and is probably dead. >> as he gets under chelsea bridge, he does cross the bridge more than once, and when he gets back to the center, he appears to be moving from the railings back to the pavement and looking over the edge of the railings. distinct change in how he has been moving about. daniel: ezedi is the only suspect in a horrific attack on a 32-year-old woman and her two daughters. he is accused of throwing concentrated caustic soda on them and hurling the three-year-old to the ground. the attack happened 7:25 last wednesday night in clapham in

south london. from there, ezedi headed to kings cross, buying some water. but then he headed south again to tower hill and the river thames. every time he was filmed on cctv after that, he was walking west along the river, ending up at chelsea bridge. officers have been told by experts that if he has died in the river, with the rapid current, it may take a montho find the body, and in truth, it might never be found. friends of the woman he is suspected of attacking have released to this image of her and her daughters on a fundraising page with their faces obscured by hearts. detectives say she is very poorly and unable to talk to them. she is unaware that the suspect is thought to have gone into the river from chelsea bridge. christian: our reporter was at that police briefing and has come into the studio to join us. nobody, no proof of what happened, but clearly there are indications. reporter: strong indications.

when police say things like this, they obviously mean it. they say they are keeping an open mind. of course the investigation will continue. the crucial part is that cctv. they pretty much have a good picture of what happened in the four hours following the attack last wednesday night. ezedi was a scene central london, wandering around they say with purpose essentially, ending up along the lines of the thames. he gets to chelsea bridge and a has behavior changes. he paces up and down and leans over the railings. it is then that the cctv trail goes completely dead. that is why they think it is pretty indisputable that he then went into the river. interesting, actually, because we did ask them, with the help of a behavioral scientist to set elected the desk said -- said they looked at the body language and changes at chelsea bridge. someone who perpetrated a horrific attack and contemplated taking his own life. christian: does that mean the search is off?

reporter: the investigation will continue. it points out it wasn't just cctv they were looking at. there were other leads. theyad 8 search words they issued, of which three used armed police. there are other issues to look at, not least of course the victim, still sedated and hospital. haven't had a chance to talk to her yet. christian: thank you very much indeed. take you straight to the white house. we have pictures of this meeting between president biden and olaf scholz. this is a recording, it hasn't started rolling yet, but i can give you a couple of lines from the briefing at we have had so far. they are discussing ukraine funding, as we have talked about in the last half-hour, with biden telling mr. scholz that we have to get this funding passed. and they also discussed strengthening nato, which is a key concern for the europeans. they looked at some statements from those who support president trump and there are fears that

have been exposed on this program, indeed, that may in time to come, former president trump might walk away from nato , were he elected in november. all that being discussed, and i would think as well they will shortly be talking about the middle east as well, because the two parties have been strong backers of israel's role in gaza. we bring you that video as -- oh, here it is, it's moving. let's see if we can listen in. pres. biden: you ready? >> we are good. pres. biden: welcome back, all. thank you very much for making the effort to be here. about two years ago, you and i met here and said the united states and germany have to act together. and we have been doing that. and you know, congress have yet

to pass a national security spending package. now house members have been somewhat reluctant. we hope it is more politics than real -- christian: this is president biden talking to olaf scholz of the white house. we are going to narrator: funding for this presentation of this program is provided by... man: bdo. accountants and advisors. narrator: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ announcer: "usa today" calls it, "arguably the best bargain in streaming." that's because the free pbs app lets you watch the best of pbs anytime, anywhere.

♪ ♪ narrator: funding for this presentation of this program is provided by... brook: these are people who are trying to change the world. startups have this energy that energizes me.